LOWER PROVIDENCE >> No matter your age, we all know something that Dorothy Gale of Kansas had to learn the hard way during her exciting but frequently arduous journey to Oz: There’s no place like home.

More than three million baby boomers turn 55 every year, according to verywell.com, and the aging trend indicates that many, if not all, of them are fairly adamant about remaining independent in their own homes.

That has meant more business opportunities for those providing services to seniors living independently, but few business owners would seem to come by their credibility in the field quite as naturally as the mother and son partnership behind Eagleville-based Reliant At Home Care.

Cerie Goldenberg was one of the founding members of the Montgomery County Office of Aging and Adult Services in Norristown.

“The county was just starting to develop this in the 1970s and I was instrumental in starting some of the programs, plus I ran the transit service, which was two vans that ran around the county picking up older adults and taking them to their doctors’ appointments and things,” Cerie recalled. “Eventually I ran the adult services part of the agency.”

Cerie’s son, David Goldenberg, had cared for all four of his own grandparents and worked for a time in high school and college at Meadowood in Worcester before earning his business degree.

“I enjoyed working at Meadowood a lot, went to college, got out and worked a sales job but didn’t really like that,” David said. “I was looking for an opportunity, as my mother was, and with her background in the aging population we decided to start Reliant At Home Care. Since I enjoy working with older adults, and I was very involved in carting for my grandparents, it all came full circle.”

Cerie’s and David’s strengths were so compatible from the outset, it’s an arrangement that could not have been constructed more fluently had experts in the field engineered it.

“David’s business degree and my social work background joined together and I’m able to do the clinical piece of it and David is able to do the business,” Cerie said. “But he’s also very involved with our clients, in all aspects of the business. I don’t want to be involved in the business part of it, so it works out perfectly.”

At the heart of David’s passion for his sometimes difficult work at such a young age is his understanding of older adults’ desire to live on their own in familiar surroundings as long as possible.

“My goal is to enable older adults to remain at home for as long as they are safely able to do so,” he said. “Aging can be an overwhelming journey.”

Regardless of their income, Cerie and David believe all older adults should have access to the services they need, and consequently have made sure that Reliant at Home Care is involved in the Aging Wavier Program, The Options Program and the VA Veterans’ Aid and Attendance Program.

The Reliant staff includes case manager Anita Ijaz and about 55 caregivers who work full- or part-time.

“We prefer experienced people when we hire, and that someone is a certified nursing assistant,” Cerie explained.

With business pouring in via a prominent sign out front — Reliant offices share a building with Mango Tree Bistro, 3120 Ridge Pike — and referrals from social and geriatric workers, Reliant’s reputation for compassionate care has grown through the old fashioned word-of-mouth circuit as well, Cerie noted.

“Clients that have been happy with the caregivers we’ve sent them have told others, and it’s really grown that way,” she added. “There are a number of franchises out there now. We are not a franchise. We’re smaller and we know all of our clients by their first name and they know us. And I think,” Cerie added, “because we’re family-owned and we’re small we’re able to offer more personal care.”